Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-02-12
,e read . third time and passed


| to be engrOssed.
Mr. Harrington said that the section pro-
posed to be repealed provided that after d.
vorce is granted neither party can marry With
! in two years, without the consent OF the court
No provision i. made for notice to any party,
nor any.rule laid down to guide the justices
of the court in granting such permission. he
presented this bill at the request Of one of the
! justices of the supreme court and upon the
sugge stion of another. The law, he said. 10
practically = dead letter; that is, if any one
asks such permission, even within one week
from the granting OF the divorce, the justice
grants it.
Mr. Dawson of Greenville called attention
to the fact that the party against whom
the divorce was granted could not
marry within two years from the granting
of the divorce, or after, without the permis-
sion of the justice. The party upon whose
| petition the divorce granted could marty
within two years upon permission from she
court; but the party against whom the d.
vorce was granted could not marry vi hin
two years. and not after that except upon
permission from the court. He had not for
COTTON the efforts made by the religious and
moral community in 1888 to have these di-
vorce laws enacted; and while they had not
gotten just what they desired, such as it was,
he was opposed to taking away that which
they had secured.
Mr.. Harrington knew that they was graat
deal of agitation upon this subject some
| years since, and he believed that section III
| of the same chapter was benifclal-that a
! divorce in the first instance shall be nfss for
six months but under the section proposed
to be repealed all that is necessary to get
divorce is to make the allegation, prove your
case. wait little time, ard then your divorce
gets through. He stated advisedly, by the
advice of the Supreme Court, that this legis-
lation is in the interest of public morals.
MI Walton of Skowhegan, hoped the bill
would pass. He understood that when the
question was raised several years ago, that
has been spoken of by the gentleman from
G:eenville, it was claimed at that time that
the Supreme Court should be limited and
should not decide themselves what was de-
cisve about dome site harmony, but that GER
tain specific causes should be set out and
approved: and the result of the movement
was that the three specific causes for abso-
lutte dicorce then existing were raised to
seven. He was asked, after the passage of
the original section, by one of the judges
what he (Mr Wslton) thought he (ths
judge ought to do when parties came to him
for leave to marry. And he replied, why
judge should tell them to get married again
|
don't know anything else to say"
Mr.. Walton said that they would get mar
ried you could not make them understand
it. They would get married, and the result
was an infinite amount of mis- hief. He be-
lieved with Mr.. harrington that the repeal OF
this Sc tion was in the interest of good morals.
Upon question from Mr.. Clark of Ban
gor, he stated the effect of this law would be
that hereatt + every divorce would become
absolute six months after the decree, upon
petition OF either party.
The question being taken the bill was read
third time and passed to be engrossed.
House document g. bill an act to create
bureau of labor statistics, same up under
special assignment.
Mr.. Lyons of Vinalhaven moved that the
bill have its third reading and be put upon
its passage to be engrossed.
| MIR. Lyons considered this bill Of great i'm
pOrtance, as affecting the condition OF thou
sands of wage earners of this State, and as a
mighty and necessary education in the social
and labor problems now before US. The
law provided for commissioner to collect
Information upon the subject of labor, its
relation to capital, the hours of labor, the
| earnings of the lahoriDg men, women AMI
children of the State, and the means of pro-
noting their material, social ,intellectuai, and
of strikes aud labor trOu6les-iR fact to in
vestigste the whole wage system, so that the
laborer may be enabled to know his real and
exact condition, and to compare it with the
standing of his fellow workers throughout
| the civilized world.
He wished 10 know if there was or could
be bill before the legislature that had for
its object grander principle or that was
deserving of more generous support than
an act whose object was to uplift and educate
the thousands of men, women and chldren
who crowd our factories, workshops and ten
ements, and who, through no fault of their
own, and the drudgery of unremittant toll,
are really not in great many cases aware of
their own condition.
He found, after very careful perusal of
the statutes OF the State, that very little ef-
fective legislation had been enacted which
| related especially to the wage earners, ana
the lettering of their condition. They did
not ask for class legislation because they
were opposed to that. Neither did they
come here to ask for special legislation. But
they asked that laws be made that have
meinlng and will re ogniZe no class or
section he said sixteen States in the
Union have these bureaus of labor statistics,
costing annually from 1900 down, and
there Is nauonal bureau
the amount appropriated annually for agri-
cultural societies, aud other institutions; and
believed that the State could not reject this
BILL which has for its object the improve
nent and protection of tens of thousands of
men, women and children. Certainly no
solution of the great labor problem could be
reached without reliable statistics from which
might he evolved reasonable and tangible
propositions.
Mr.. Roberts Of Brunswick said that the
gentleman from Vinalhaven had made this
question study and he doubled whether he
could add anything to the remarks that the
gentleman had made. He did not think any
argument necessary to prove the value of
vaiue of statistics. Today, England, France,
Prussia, SSed-n, Belgium. as well as the
United States, have well organized bureaus
of statistics, searching for facts and compar-
ing aud deducing from them new principles.
lie called attention to the fact that the bill
did not ask for new Appropriation of S250O.
as $1,000 was already appropriated annually
for the collection of industrial statistics
He thought the last report of these statis-
tics was very eredltable in the lines it sought
to investigate, but the labor men complained
bitterly and with justice of this re-
port because it misrepresented them
in regard to strikes, and threw all the blame